1. More Murray. The Nuggets’ second-year point guard had an entire section of the postgame media notes dedicated to various tidbits about his career performance. A sampling? He’s the first Nugget since Carmelo Anthony in 2010-11 to have at least 30 points, five rebounds and two assists in back-to-back games. Since the start of the 2001-02 season, the only other first- or second-year players in the NBA to reach those same totals are LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Anthony Davis, Blake Griffin, Damian Lillard, Karl-Anthony Towns and Joel Embiid. But here’s an underrated stat: Murray went 6-of-6 from the free throw line (including the massive make with less than a minute to go to give the Nuggets the lead for good), upping his season average to 92.4 percent. That ranks sixth in the NBA among players with at least 23 attempts.

2. Ch-ch-ch-changes. Following Friday’s bad loss to Phoenix, Nuggets coach Michael Malone hinted that personnel changes could be on the way. He rolled out a different starting lineup for the sixth consecutive game, replacing Wilson Chandler with Will Barton at small forward. That gives Denver three attacking perimeter players in that initial group, and makes Chandler more of a focal point on offense with the second unit while maintaining his versatile defensive presence. Last season, Chandler averaged 15.7 points and 6.5 rebounds, primarily as a reserve. Monday night, he totaled six points on 2-of-5 shooting, five rebounds, three blocks and two steals in 31 minutes.

“My message to (Chandler) was, quite simply, in that starting lineup, it’s hard for me to get you shots,” Malone said. “I think if I bring you off the bench, I can get you a post up if they’re guarding you with a small or get you a high-post (isolation) if there’s a big on you.”

3. Frenetic finish. After Murray’s huge And-1 and in between Barton’s two sets of free throws was a wild offensive sequence for the Trail Blazers. To try to prevent a pull-up 3, Denver trapped Lillard, before CJ McCollum misfired on a jumper and Pat Connaughton stole away a rebound that Chandler could not fully secure. Evan Turner then rebounded his own missed turnaround jumper and got the ball back to Lillard, who was blocked by Plumlee on a driving layup. The ball trickled out of bounds and was originally awarded back to the Blazers, before the officials reviewed and reversed the call. Malone gave a hat tip to Nuggets TV analyst Scott Hastings, who apparently alerted Denver’s bench that the ball was off Portland.

“It was great that (the officials) made that decision to make sure they have the right call,” Malone said.

4. Second-half turnaround. Two figures really illustrate how Denver cut into a halftime deficit and eventually took control down the stretch. After committing 11 first-half turnovers for 18 points, the Nuggets surrendered just four for four points after intermission. And after totaling 12 first-half points in the paint, Denver had 22 in the second half.

5. Limiting McCollum.Gary Harris went just 4-of-14 from the floor Monday, but spent much of the night playing lockdown defense on McCollum, a deadly scorer. He finished 3-of-14 for 12 points, with six of them coming in the first four minutes of the second quarter when Harris was out of the game. In his last two contests against the Nuggets, McCollum has made just 10 of his 32 attempts from the floor. Malone said the key for Harris was sticking with McCollum throughout his “unbelievable” movement off the ball.

“He accepted the challenge of getting into CJ, chasing him over (the screen) and not stopping, because there’s another screen coming right after that,” Malone said of Harris. “It was just a decision that he made to get into CJ and make things difficult for him and just be physical.”

6. The big men. Murray Mania quickly overshadowed Round 4 between Jokic and Nurkic, which came in Nurkic’s first game back in Denver with the Blazers. They both finished with double-doubles. Jokic totaled 16 points and 12 rebounds, upping the Nuggets’ record to 13-4 when he reaches a double-double. Nurkic finished with 19 points and 12 rebounds, snapping a streak of seven wins in a row for Portland when Nurkic pulls down that many boards. But for a moment, the two did appear to be involved in one of the game’s most crucial plays when, with Denver trailing 90-84 with about six minutes left, Nurkic sent a sailing block on a Jokic shot into the courtside seats that Jokic and Malone thought was goaltending.

7. Playoff push. After the Clippers’ Monday loss to Minnesota, Denver jumped back into the eighth spot in the West. The Nuggets are also one game back of the No. 7 seed Blazers and 1 1/2 games behind sixth-seeded New Orleans. Denver already won the season series against the Pelicans 2-1, and now holds a 2-1 advantage over Portland with an April 9 game at the Pepsi Center remaining in the season series. Next up for the three teams Denver is chasing? They all play Wednesday, with the Clippers hosting Boston, the Blazers hosting Minnesota and the Pelicans visiting Charlotte. Denver is off until Thursday’s home contest against New York, followed by another home date with Dallas on Saturday.

8. Quotable. Barton on his clutch free throws after going 0-for-7 from the field: “It’s an opportunity for me to seal the game for my team. That’s just as important as hitting the game-winning shot … everyone knows on the team (that) I want the ball in my hands in those moments. I shake off everything and it’s, ‘Next shot.’”

Gina Mizell covers the Denver Nuggets for The Denver Post. She joined The Post in September 2017, after 3 1/2 years covering Oregon State football for The Oregonian in Portland. She was named the 2016 Oregon Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. She was the Oklahoma State football beat reporter for The Oklahoman from 2011-14 and a sports reporter/columnist for The Beaumont (Texas) Enterprise from 2010-11. She is a 2010 graduate of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.